KEN HINKLEY was beaming after Port Adelaide wrapped up the minor premiership on Monday night, but said the Power would not dwell long on its "significant" achievement.
The Power coach said he was "really proud" of his team for finishing on top and his players would celebrate that night before starting their preparation for a qualifying final against Geelong.
MAGPIES v POWER Full match coverage and stats
And Port will be fully loaded to take on the Cats, with their coach confirming defenders Tom Clurey (hamstring) and Ryan Burton (hamstring) along with young star Zak Butters (suspension) will all be available.
The 16-point defeat of Collingwood capped off a memorable home and away campaign for Port, which led the League from the opening round until the end.
"I'm proud of the boys and the way they played," Hinkley said.
"It's really significant. The boys deserve it. It's a 30-week season. We've played for a long time and managed to protect it all the way through the year."
Although Richmond, Geelong and, to a lesser extent, West Coast have widely been talked about as premiership fancies, Hinkley said he took no offence at Port being left out of the conversation.
He said the club had to work hard to "change the narrative" and wanted to be a team like those that had earned respect.
The Power could take a big step towards that by defeating the Cats in a less than a fortnight, an opponent they lost to heavily just five weeks ago.
WHO PLAYS WHO The match-ups for finals week one
Hinkley said he would take no notice of that 60-point hiding at Metricon Stadium.
"We've been a really consistent team all year, but every team in the competition has had a day or two when they haven't quite got it right," he said.
"We've been beaten by three really good teams this year … Brisbane, St Kilda and Geelong.
"We've got our opportunity to reset, go again and it doesn't matter what happened five weeks ago, eight weeks ago or 30 weeks ago, it matters what happens from here on."
Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley had a similar sentiment as his team now prepares for a trip to Perth and an elimination final against West Coast.
The Magpies were outmuscled by Port around the ball and now face an Eagles outfit that smashed them by 66 points at Optus Stadium in round eight.
Buckley said quarantining in Western Australia for a second time – this time for seven days – would not be a problem.
"It doesn't hurt," he said.
"We'll be familiar with the accommodation, Joondalup again, we'll be familiar with the ground we trained at.
"Outside of that, we're travelling to play a game of footy, an elimination final."
Buckley said the Eagles would be pretty confident coming up against his team after the match earlier in the season.
"One thing I won't be doing is looking back at how we played that game," he said.
"We played a long, long way from where we have for the majority of the year.
"If we're using that as a checkpoint, I'm happy for others to do it, but we won't be."
